Chapter Text
When Peyton sees the image on the front page of the newspaper she bolts to Amy and Rory's place. Her spare key opens the door to find an empty apartment.
Brilliant.
She called Mels to see if she'd heard from them. No answer.
She tries the Doctor's number, he never answers. She'd left him seventeen voicemails over the course of the last three months and without a word in reply.
This time, the call connects.
"This is the Doctor's phone," Peyton hears Rory's voice answer. She suddenly gets quite angry. The word 'Doctor' written in the fields, the Pond's house empty. She knows exactly what happened.
"Rory," she snaps. "It's me,"
"Oh... Hi, Peyton," he replies timidly.
"Why'd you go without me!" She shouts into the phone, crossing her free arm in front of her chest.
"Well, you said you were busy," Rory explains nervously.
"What? If you had said you were going to create crop circles to call the Doctor I would have cancelled!"
"You can't cancel on your mum's birthday breakfast," Rory reasons.
"Shut up!"
"Right, Yep. Coming to get you now," he says.
Peyton hangs up and storms out of their house, locking the door behind her. They better have a bloody good excuse.
The beautiful blue box materialises in front of her on the pavement. She marches in and slams the door, glaring up at the three individuals up on the console landing.
"Why didn't you come get me?" She asks, standing at the bottom of the stairs with her hands on her hips
"Well, having a gun pointed at one's head sort of limits your ability to do these sorts of things," the Doctor says, flapping his hands.
"Wait, what?"
They explain to her the whole story.
Peyton can't believe it. Mels was River Song, that whole time. She grew up with her, one of her closest friends.
"So, are we all good?" The Doctor asks tentatively.
"I'll allow it," she says stiffly, not wanting to admit defeat. "But you could have made the situation more urgent," she points in Amy and Rory's direction.
"Won't happen again," Amy nods.
"Good, because we've got a distress call to chase," the Doctor claps before launching himself around the console.
"Huh?" Peyton blinks at how sudden it is.
"Someone needs us to fight some monsters," Rory says.
"Good thing that's our specialty," she smiles as she grips the console, ready to take flight
They wander out into the chilly air of East London and look around at their surroundings. It's night-time now, despite it being morning when she stepped aboard the time machine. A dishevelled, kind of dodgy looking apartment building stands in front of them, the smell of garbage hits her nostrils from the direction of what must be the bin collection area.
"No offence, Doctor-"
"Meaning the opposite?" The Doctor cuts Rory off.
"But we could get a bus somewhere like this."
"The exact opposite," the Doctor rebuts.
"Well, I suppose it can't all be planets and history and stuff, Rory," Peyton sighs.
"Yes, it can!" The Doctor disagrees. "Course it can! Planets and history and stuff. That's what we do! But not today, no. Today we're answering a cry for help from the scariest place in the universe, a child's bedroom." He takes out his sonic and begins scanning.
The Doctor runs ahead and presses the button for the lift and waits for the rest of them to catch up. She sees him take out his psychic paper and look at it keenly.
"Please save me from the monsters?" Rory reads aloud over his shoulder. "Who sent that?"
The Doctor snaps it shut and hits him on the side of the head with it. "That's what we're here to find out,"
"Sounds like something a kid would say," Peyton points out.
"Exactly. A scared kid. A very scared kid," the Doctor folds his arms. "So scared that somehow, their cry for help got through to us in the TARDIS."
"But you've traced it here?" she asks, unsure of how anything that powerful could be from somewhere like this.
"Exactly. Ah!" The Doctor smiles as the elevator doors open and he leads them all inside. "Going up."
"So how do we find this kid?" Amy asks as the elevator rumbles as they make their ascent.
"Split up, door knocking," the Doctor explains as they elevator comes to a stop with a sweet, ding. "Ask if anything's been weird."
Peyton hates door knocking.
Peyton sees the back of his stupid tweed jacket further up the corridor, looking off the balcony at into the distance.
"Doctor," she whispers hoarsely, trying not to bother the tenants. "No luck."
She'd had a door slammed in her face this evening more times than can count and it has put her in a rubbish mood.
"Don't fret, Peyton," he says, spinning around to her. "The night's still young."
She walks next to him along the walkway until they run into Amy and Rory at an intersection.
"Hey! Any luck?" Amy asks.
"Three old ladies, a traffic Watson from Croatia and a man with ten cats," the Doctor replies.
"No more luck with me, either," Peyton shrugs.
"What are we actually looking for?" Rory asks.
"Ten cats!" The Doctor gasps, still not over his earlier discovery. "Scared kid, remember?"
"I found scary kids. Does that count?" Amy suggests.
"Hm. Try next floor down," the Doctor shakes his head. "Catch you later," he pats Peyton on the shoulder before running off.
Usually, she'd bolt after him but tonight she just sighs.
"Maybe it was, you know, junk mail," says Rory, pushing the button for the lift before leaning against the wall, arms crossed.
"What?" Amy raises an eyebrow.
"The message on the psychic paper. Maybe it was just nothing," he says.
The doors to the lift open and Peyton and Amy walk in, Rory follows quickly.
Peyton presses the button for the fourth floor and the doors close gently with a ding.
Suddenly the elevator drops, causing them to let loose a scream.
Falling,
falling,
falling as if the lift's cords had been snapped.
The sounds of Peyton's screams mingle with Amy and Rory's as they hurtle down the shaft. She presses herself up against the dirty wall and closes her eyes tight.
There was no way the Doctor could get them out of this one
The number of times she'd woken up in pain on the floor over the past year is starting to become concerning.
Peyton forces her eyes open to see only faint shapes in the darkness.
"Amy, Peyton," she hears Rory croak.
"I'm here, Rory," she replies, wincing as she sits up.
"Amy, where are you?" Rory whispers.
"Yeah. Here, it's me." Peyton hears Amy stumble onto all fours and Peyton looks in the direction of the noise she's making. Her eyes begin to adjust to the darkness and she can see the Ponds a little better.
Peyton gets to her feet and tries to look around, but she still can't see much through the hazy darkness.
A light appears, illuminating Rory's face. Of course, he carries a torch, what a dork.
"You guys okay?" He asks.
Peyton and Amy both grumble in response.
"What happened to the lift?" Peyton asks, looking at the ceiling. "We were in a lift, weren't we?" The memory is kinda blurred.
"Yeah, we... I remember getting in and then..." Amy mumbles.
Rory groans.
"What?" Peyton frowns.
"We're dead, aren't we?" Rory rolls his eyes in a frighteningly nonchalant way despite what he just said.
"Eh?" Amy raises an eyebrow.
"The lift fell and we're dead."
"Shut up," Amy glares.
"We're dead, again!"
"Shut up, we aren’t dead," Peyton shakes her head. "Let's just find out where we are."
Amy and Rory get to their feet and Rory shines the torch around the room.
Old furniture, human. They're still on Earth but maybe they've travelled back in time? Something about the place is off though, Peyton can't put her finger on it.
The three walk into a new room and take a look inside.
"It's obvious what's happened," Rory says.
"Yeah? Really? Because it's not obvious to me," Amy says sarcastically.
"The TARDIS has gone funny again," Rory explains. "Some time... slippy... thing. You know, the Doctor's back there in EastEnder's land and we're stuck in the past. This is probably 1700 and something."
"Yay! My favourite year," Amy says sarcastically. "Peyton, can't you do some scanny thing with the sonic?"
"It doesn't just tell you what year it is," she sighs. "Call me when you need a door unlocking or need to boil an egg."
They find themselves in a kitchen. The cupboards and shelves are bare except for one or two items. Like the rest of the house, it is dark
While inspecting the countertop, a clanging noise makes them jump. Peyton turns around to see Rory's torchlight pointing around Amy who looks apologetic in front of the fireplace.
"Bit neglected, whatever it is," she says coolly.
"Let's find the front door at least," Peyton says. "Then we can work out where we are. When we are."
She looks back at the counter and hears Amy tap something. "Guys, look at this," she says.
They both turn to look at her.
"What? It's a copper pan," Rory shrugs.
"No, it's not," she smiles, knocking on it and it makes a very not-metallic sound. "It's wood. It's made of wood and just painted to look like copper."
"Well, that's stupid," Rory frowns as he knocks on the pan too.
Rory points his torch at the cupboards again and Peyton sees something, an oil lamp.
"Wait, hang on!" She rushes forward as Rory's light continues to pan around the room.
Peyton grabs the object off the counter and immediately notices that it's plastic, not metal and glass.
Underneath it, she feels something. "There's a switch," she says. "There shouldn't be a switch."
"Just turn it on," Amy says.
Peyton pushes it and the light inside flickers to life.
"Well, not seventeen-hundred and something then," Rory.
"Hmm," Peyton replies, holding the lamp up to get a better look at the room.
They walk around as Peyton hears Rory and Amy rummage through the draws. They both scream.
Peyton rushes over to see a giant eyeball sitting in the drawer, as if gazing up at them with its blue iris.
The three of them look between each other before Amy reaches in to touch it.
They all cringe just before her fingertips touch its surface but as her fingernails touch the side of the eye it makes an odd noise.
"It's glass!" She gasps. "It's a glass eye."
Peyton reaches down and tap it herself. Glass. That's really creepy.
Rory's torch starts flickering and the girls look up at him.
"Stop doing that," Amy whispers.
"It's not me," he counters.
After a few more flashes it stays on. Thoroughly creeped out, Peyton says, "come on."
"Yep," Amy agrees.
Before they leave the room, Amy pipes up. "Hang on." She runs back to the table in the middle of the room and grabs the pan, with an intimidating look in her eye.
A foyer. Thank God.
"At last," Rory sighs, rushing to the grand front doors. "Oh!" He bangs a fist against them.
"What is it?" Peyton gulps.
"No doorknob!" He cries. "Wooden pans, a massive glass eyes and now, no doorknob!"
"And this clock," Amy adds.
"Huh," Peyton walks over to her.
"Look. The hands, they're painted on," she reaches up and touches the clock face.
The sound of a young child giggling echoes through the creepy old house. The three of them jump and look at each other. Rory raises a finger to his lips.
Their journey through the house does nothing to ease the anxious weight in Peyton's throat. Each room they enter only presents more oddities, allowing Peyton to piece together a theory. She hasn't spoken up about it, mainly because it's so bizarre and she doesn't want to scare the Ponds further, but all the clues point to them being stuck inside a child's dollhouse. Not possible, but yet...
They come upon a large staircase and they hear the giggle again. "You hear that?" Peyton whispers.
"Yeah," Rory answers. They look toward a door on the other side of the room and slowly inch toward it, Rory shields Amy behind him with his arm as Peyton takes the lead, handing the lamp back to her.
"They're getting closer," Peyton mutters.
"They?" Rory says, alarmed.
Light footsteps followed by more giggling send chills down her spine.
Rory's torch points at the door as they shuffle closer, the giggling now clearly coming from the other side.
Peyton reaches out for the doorknob and sends one last glance to her companions who both give her an encouraging nod.
She does it quickly, like ripping off a band aid she pulls the door open only to scream and jump backwards as they see what it reveals.
A china doll, human-sized but with doll-like proportions. Its eyes are missing, leaving dark eye sockets and its milky white skin, lightly cracked. The woollen straggly hair hung down to frame its large face.
Its painted expression doesn't move, Peyton breathes a sigh of relief. It's not real, she tells herself. Just a doll.
But then who, or what, is making the giggling noises.
"It's… it's just a dummy," Amy pants. "It's just a dummy."
"This is… weird," Rory shakes his head.
"Yeah, says the time-travelling nurse," says Amy, trying to lighten the mood.
Peyton pulls out her sonic and scans the thing up and down. Nothing. No signs of life, and it’s wood, good thing it isn't alive then or the tool would be useless at stopping it.
"Let's just… leave it for now," Amy warns.
"Come on," Rory nods to the staircase.
"Why aren't there any lights?" Rory complains. "I miss lights. You don't really miss things till they're gone, do you?"
Peyton bites her lip and has a sudden realisation as to why the Doctor withholds information sometimes. If she tells the two of them, it will only freak them out, it's freaking her out.
"It's like what my nan used to say, 'you'll never miss the water till the well runs dry'," he rambles
"Rory," Amy warns.
"Except light I mean, not water. Lights are great, aren't they? I mean if this place was all lit up, we wouldn't even be worried at all."
"Rory," Peyton cuts him off. "Panicking, not helpful"
"Yeah," he nods. "Yeah, sorry."
A door slams ahead. "Help me! Please! Keep them away from me!"
A greasy looking man runs down the corridor toward them. It's the dolls, walking stiffly behind him. Peyton gasps in horror as she watches them swarm on him, pushing him to the ground.
The man cries out while the dolls giggle. Peyton pulls Amy and Rory behind her and starts inching back.
Suddenly the man stops screaming, instead, he shakes in the hold of the dolls.
His head begins to swell and matted yellow wool grows over his barely-there hair.
Peyton gulps thickly and can feel her heartbeats in her skull, pushing Amy and Rory further behind her.
Slowly its head turns, revealing the same white-painted face and empty eye sockets as the rest of the dolls. Even the clothes had been changed. It gets to its feet.
"I take it back," Peyton says meekly. "Resume panicking."
She turns quickly and the Ponds follow suit, they sprint away from the giggling mannequins as quick as they can muster.
She sees up ahead, a room with a door. A door is good.
Peyton follows Amy and Rory inside and quickly slams the heavy wooden door closed behind her before leaning her back onto it. Amy and Rory join her too.
As she pants, she looks across to Rory beside her and Amy on the other side of him. Oh God, where is the Doctor?
The sound of giggling and footsteps slowly fades after a while and Peyton leans her head back on the door with a loud exhale.
"Dolls house," says Rory.
"Sorry?" Amy replies.
"This is a dolls house, we are trapped in a dolls house," Rory reiterates.
"Gold star for Rory," Peyton pants.
"You knew?" Amy frowns.
"I guessed," she admits.
Peyton relaxes for just a second before the giggles return, this time the dolls bang against the door, rattling the doorknob by her elbow. She grabs it.
"Lock it!" Amy yells.
"There isn't a lock!" Peyton snaps back.
They groan against the effort and Peyton feels her feet begin to slip underneath her as the dolls seem to be doubling their efforts.
"No, no, no, no!" Peyton shouts, turning around to face the door, trying to push back against the dolls who have managed to gain an advantage.
With a great heave from the three earthlings, they manage to close it again.
"Rory, the table!" Peyton says through gritted teeth.
He pushes himself off the door and grabs a small table which on second glance seems to be a giant spool of thread.
Peyton jumps off the door at the last second so he can slam it up under the doorknob.
Amy comes off the door too. "We can't stay in here. We've got to get out!"
"Er, how?" Rory shrugs.
"Peyton, do a sonic thing!"
"Everything's made of wood!" She reminds her.
"We gotta take control," she says. "Take control of the only thing we can. Letting them in."
"Letting them in?" Rory sputters.
"Letting them in?" Peyton echoes.
"And then we surprise them," Amy whispers. "We open the door and we push past them. Kick them, punch them. Anything. Okay?"
"Okay," Peyton and Rory say in unison.
"Time to play!" A doll’s high pitched voice calls.
Peyton looks between the two of them, grabbing a hand from each of them and giving them a squeeze.
Amy runs toward the door and places her hands on the spool. Rory spots a toy mop leaning up against the wall and grabs it. Peyton picks up Amy's pan.
She rips the spool away.
A doll falls into the room with a thud and Rory leads the charge, pushing another doll out of his way with the end of the mop. Peyton jumps in behind him and smacks another doll in the face with the pan.
She makes it past the dolls but hears a terrifying cry. "Rory! Peyton!"
She spins quickly to see Amy caught by the dolls.
Peyton grabs Rory as he charges toward her, dropping the pan to hold his bicep with both hands.
They watch as Amy screams. Her beautiful red hair thickens into wool as she shakes violently.
Peyton feels Rory shudder with a sob beneath her hands as the doll that was once Amy turns to them, her painted expression and empty eyes staring up at them.
"Rory, we have to move," she says, fighting past her hyperventilation, grabbing the pan from by her feet as the dolls advance once again. Rory stumbles over the bottom step of the staircase and pulls Peyton upright, tugging her up the stairs.
Peyton tries not to look at the red-haired doll as she tries to empty the haze of horror and agony from her head. She can grieve later, Rory is still alive, she is still alive. As the two reach the top of the stairs, her mind clears enough that the sound of soft singing registers in her brain. The dolls are singing, taunting them. They totally didn’t need to get any creepier. They sprint through the halls until she hears a familiar voice up ahead.
"Is that?" Rory pants beside her.
"Yeah!"
They hit a staircase and see the Doctor and another man, halfway up, defending themselves against another of dolls with large purple scissors. This second hesitation costs them time.
"We just want to play!" A doll says behind them, uncomfortably close. Rory swings with his mop, pushing it back a little, Peyton smacks it with the pot.
"Peyton! Rory!" The Doctor calls.
"Doctor!" She yells back, preoccupied with smacking a doll's arm away from her.
"Where's Amy?" The Doctor asks as they stumble back a few steps.
Peyton points to the doll. His face pales.
"George! George, you have to face your fears! You have to face them now!" He cries. Peyton has no idea who George is. Hopefully, it's relevant. "You have to open the cupboard."
She takes another swing at the yellow-haired doll's upper arm, hoping to do some damage, it coming off of this torso would be a win but nothing works.
"We'll all be trapped in here forever in a living death! George! George! Listen to me! George, listen to me!"
That does not sound good, Peyton's blood runs cold as her back presses against the Doctor's. Trapped. Nowhere to run.
After another swing, Peyton takes a peek over the railings. It's too high to jump from here without breaking a couple of bones. Crap.
"Please George, you have to end this!" The Doctor screams. "End this, end this! End this now!"
Suddenly the dolls stop, the room gets a little bit brighter.
Peyton pants as she watches the doll in front of her for any movement, the wooden pan remains raised threateningly. It is still.
"George! George, you did it!" The Doctor pants over the railing. Peyton looks over too, to see a little boy in blue pyjamas. "You did it! It's okay, it's all okay now. Everything's going to be fine."
A creaking sound proves the Doctor otherwise. Peyton snaps back to the dolls above them as they begin to try to move past them.
The dolls that were attacking the Doctor and this other man make an advance on the boy.
"No, no," the Doctor breathes. "No, no, no, no, no! George, you created this whole world. This whole thing, you can smash it! You can destroy it!"
Peyton smacks the doll again. Gritting her teeth as the ache in her shoulders begins to set in.
"Something's holding him back. Something's holding him back. Something..." the Doctor trails off.
The doll reaches out past her seemingly having no interest in converting her anymore, only wanting to get to the child. Peyton bats its arm down, but it keeps coming back up.
"That's what he did, that's what the trigger was!" The Doctor says quickly. "He thought you were rejecting him. He thought he wasn't wanted. That someone was going to come and take him away."
"Well, we, we, we talked about it," the man stammers.
"Yeah, and he heard you, Alex. A Tenza's sole function is to fit in, to be wanted and you were rejecting him.
"We just couldn't cope! We needed help!"
Peyton catches Rory's eye as he shoves the Amy doll back with the butt of the mop. She wasn't sure how much longer she could keep doing this.
"Yes, but George didn't know that! He thought you were rejecting him! He still thinks it!"
"But how can we keep him? How can we? He's not-"
"Not what?"
"He's not... Human."
"Dad!" The boy screams.
Peyton risks a peep at what's happening and sees the man, Alex, sprint down toward his son, shoving dolls out of the way and to the ground.
The Doctor pulls Peyton back, now there being space for them to retreat, she jumps down a few steps with Rory. But she didn't need to, the dolls have stopped.
"Whatever you are, whatever you do. You will always be my son!" The man says. "And I will never, ever, send you away."
The Doctor pats Peyton on the shoulder and rubs it comfortingly.
Peyton smiles and looks down at the father-son embrace happening below.
They step out of the lift and no one has anything to say for a second.
Weren't they... Didn't they all just... Huh?
Peyton looks to Amy and Rory on either side of her.
"Was I...?"
"Yeah," Peyton and Rory reply in unison.
The metal doors close behind them and they head to the TARDIS.
They sit in a row on the stone wall beside the time machine. The sun has risen over London and the day has started for many commuters whose cars zip back and forth on the busy road behind them.
They see the figure of the Doctor slowly get bigger as he saunters toward them but the three are happy to sit and wait for him. It has been a long night.
"Come on you three," he claps as he approaches them. "Things to do, people to see, whole civilisations to save. You feeling okay?"
He sits down between Peyton and Amy.
"Erm, I think so," Amy shrugs.
"Well, it's good to be all back together again," the Doctor throws an arm around their shoulders, pulling them close. "In the flesh. Come on, did someone mention something about planets and history and stuff?"